Munk Pack: how the on-the-go smoothie makers got their start

Amy Hatch

Munk Pack Healthy On the Go Smoothie

Do you love sides of veggies, fresh fruit, smoothies and all things nutritious? But find in the whirlwind of life all healthy practices you’re passionate about get thrown to the wayside? It happens, even to the best of us. Apples are replaced with packaged breakfast bars and salty snacks take over the green treats.

Munk Pack—packable on-the-go smoothies that are a quick-and-yummy breakfast or a backcountry treat—has created a solution to help us stay on the healthy, self-caring track.

Based in Greenwich, Connecticut, Munk Pack Co-founders Michelle Leutzinger and Tobias Glienke met and fell in love in New York City. Michelle trucked away in corporate law and Tobias worked for a financial firm advising startups, which included ventures in technology and the agriculture sector.

On days off, they’d go hike in the peripheries of the city. Side by side, the duo scaled trails and climbed the corporate ladder. The only roadblock they hit was in the food arena.

 

Busy lives, quick food

Munk Pack Healthy Snack On The Go Smoothie

Leading such busy, active lifestyles—as many of us do today—it is inevitable that some mornings (or all) we need a quick grab-and-go food solution.

Unfortunately, as this NYC couple found, most on-the-go foods on the market contain added sugars and artificial additives, which don’t create sustained, healthy energy in the body. Eventually, those sugar-loaded meals can cause negative impacts through weight gain, nutritional imbalance, and an overall decrease in energy. On the other side of the pendulum, skipping breakfast and working on an empty tank isn’t healthy—or efficient—either.

“Breakfast is really important and we would run out the door without food during the week before work,” Michelle said. “Or before going to the gym or going on a weekend hike, we would have issues grabbing a snack that doesn’t have added fillers, binders, or sugars.”

 

Solution: packable on-the-go smoothies

Munk Pack Healthy On the Go Smoothie

In true entrepreneur fashion, the couple decided to create their own snack: they blended up oatmeal and fresh fruits into smoothies and threw them into plastic containers for grab-and-go.

“Primarily, the inspiration for Munk Pack was our own experimenting in the kitchen when we were struggling during our corporate careers to find healthy food on the go,” Michelle said. “We wanted to create something that was based on our own lifestyle and it was a process that evolved.”

In 2014, the active-lifestyle Munk Pack smoothies hit the market. They come in a pouch that is re-closeable and packable.  That sealed container also allows the contents to stay pristine sans preservatives with 12-month shelf stability.

Each Munk Pack flavor—apple quinoa cinnamon, blueberry acai flax, and raspberry coconut—is filling and delicious. (If you haven’t seen our review, yet, check it out here.) Plus, the on-the-go smoothies contain natural sugars and are non-GMO, gluten free, vegan, and made with whole grains.

“Leading an adventurous lifestyle and being fit and healthy and on the go should not all be in contradiction,” Michelle said. “Munk Pack means something more to us than the product that we produce. It’s about inspiring others to be fit and active and to eat healthy while being on the go.”

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